Aluminum for Heatbed

[mikilu 0]

Hello guys, nice community going on here!!!

after a couple weeks printing on a non heated bed, a heatbed update is my next goal, because I want to start printing ABS. And although having read a lot of post about adding a heatbed I do still have a few questions.

Is Mic6 aluminium required, I cant seem to find it in the Netherlands, do people have good experience with more custom Aluminium?

I have found this one http://www.hamel.nl/Files/File/documentatie/Alu_toolingplate.pdf, (Alu toolingplate, sorry Dutch datasheet) but it is not exacly the same.

Another quaestion I do have is that I read that you have to built your own firmware to get it working, Do I need to add the thermstor to the firmware or are they already incoorperated.

I do not have enough experience or time to get into coding...

Thanks

 

[anthonyt 0]

I have not yet implemented a heated bed for the Ultimaker, but I did add a regular aluminum plate to the Makerbot. The plate was sheared to size and was badly warped. I had to hammer it flat and check flatness with the side of a metal ruler. I will make sure to get something better next time. Apparently MIC6 is sold in my region (Canada, at Metal Supermarkets).

 

[mastory 44]

MIC6 is the common name for a type of aluminum tooling plate. It is manufactured to be very flat and to tolerate machining without warping from subsequent machining operations. I am no metallurgist, but I have been using MIC6 in my work over my career. It is produced by a casting process (to eliminate internal stresses that are common in roll formed metals) and a secondary machining of both sides to produce a flat, smooth and parallel final product. It is sometimes generically called "cast aluminum tooling plate". Unfortunately, the thinnest is is manufactured is 1/4" or 6.4mm. It should be sawed to size and not sheared. My heated bed is made from MIC6. I believe if it were available in 4mm it would be preferable for our purpose.

If someone had access to a press room with high tonnage presses, (like the kind that press car bodies) it would be possible to coin a roll formed sheet to have a similar flatness. It would be preferred to do the machining first.

Matt

 

[gr5 2,172]

hat I read that you have to built your own firmware to get it working

 

It's easy! You just check the box that says "heated bed" and choose the correct thermistor:

http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/

 

[mikilu 0]

Ok, thanks for the info and the link, it will help a lot.

I have contacted the supplier of the AGP-5083, and although it is low stress toolingplate it gets nowhere near the properties of MIC6 plate, they are looking if they can offer me MIC6.

any suggestions for MIC6 supplier are very welcome.

 

[rigelsix 0]

I made a custom heated bed out of 3/16" 6061 aluminum to try out printing ABS on my Ultimaker. It worked pretty well. I guess the trick is that I had the Aluminum already (I work for a University) and a plasma cutter to cut out the shape for the bed. Zero problems with warping or flatness, but I cut it out of four-foot square sheet. 6061 aluminum is probably going to be much cheaper than something like MIC6, but there's more than one way to upgrade your machine... :-)

I added the Prusa heated bed pcb to the bottom of the plate and ran the heated bed with an external power supply.

I removed the setup when I installed the hotend 2.0 upgrade when that came out and haven't really missed it that much. It was nice, but the printer still works very well with PLA and 3M tape. Still using my printed ABS fan-duct I made with it though - the PLA ones kept melting and the fold-up ones kept coming apart.